The present invention relates to a device for cross flow filtration, and in particular to a whole blood filtration device allowing a fast and simple filtering process for separation of blood cells.
Separation of blood cells is required in particular for purposes of analysis of the human blood. A separation can be obtained by centrifugation of the human blood to thereby obtain the separated plasma/serum and blood cells. However, a centrifugation process requires an extraordinary apparatus and also requires a certain period of time. In particular, in emergency applications, for example, in ambulances, a centrifugation process is not practicable. Further, for private use or for pharmacies, a centrifugation process is expensive and of extraordinary effort. Therefore, there is a need for a simple and low-cost device for whole blood filtration.
A subsequent whole blood separation into plasma/serum can be advantageous for point-of-care testing devices, which are used to provide a quick blood analysis at/near the patient to get a quick blood analysis result outside of a clinical laboratory to make immediate decisions about patient care. Typically point-of-care testing is performed by non-laboratory personnel. A quick prior plasma filtration process facilitates the quick blood analysis and enables new operating conditions for point-of-care devices, since most of them work with whole blood or with the aforementioned microdevices which lead to a very small yield of plasma/serum volume. The whole blood separation process can also be integrated within the point-of-care device.